This list is not intended to be exhaustive, only to cover breweries
whose beers are mentioned in my pub guide pages. Belgian breweries are well-enough
documented elsewhere for me not to feel too guilty.

Barley wine brewed from malted barley, hops, thyme, curaçao and
dark candy sugar. Seasonal - Winter.
An excellent strong beer that is well worth looking for. Will improve
for at least a few years in the bottle. Appears very occasionally
on draught.

A microbrewery, now in business for over 20 years, that thoroughly deserves
its success. La Chouffe is an original and distinctive beer, that has gained
great popularity. Strangely, it is far easier to find on draught in Amsterdam
than in Belgium. Around 40% of their output is exported to Holland.

The bottled beers, with the exception of Kwel Chouffe, are only packaged
in large champagne-style bottles.

Brown Ale. Bottle-conditioned.
Mid-brown colour; caramel, porridge, wort and perfume aroma; very
sweet taste with toffee, dates, milk, roast and caramel aromas; sweetish
finish with caramel, dates and alcohol aromas.
Pretty good, though there are some unusual notes in the aroma. Surprisingly
sweet, given the gravity/alcohol ratio. Tastes like a good candidate
for ageing to me.(Tasted 17.07.05)

69

Gouden Carolus Triple

9%

20º

Tripel. Bottle-conditioned.
Full yellow colour with a tight, lasting head; coriander, cloves and
basil aroma; sweet/bitterish taste with ginger, caramel and cumin
aromas; sweetish/bitter finish with caramel, pepper and resin aromas.
A beer that is very different in all its phases - a very spicy aroma,
intensely sweet in the mouth, hoppy in the finish. A bit odd, but
quite pleasant. (Tasted 18.07.05)

62

Gouden Carolus Cuvee van de Keizer

10%

22º

Strong Brown Ale. Bottle-conditioned.

Gouden Carolus Easter Beer

10%

22º

Strong Brown Ale. Bottle-conditioned. Seasonal
- Easter.

Gouden Carolus Christmas

10.5%

22º

Spiced strong Brown Ale. Bottle-conditioned. Seasonal - Christmas.

Independent brewery. The beers have improved immeasurably since the brewery
escaped from Riva's ownership.

The brewery tap
in Mechelen is well worth a visit. As well as their outstanding beers they
also serve excellent food.

Pils. A Belgian friend of mine says it is one of the best of its
type left, because it at least retains a little hoppiness.

Vieux Temps

5.5%

Pale ale.
A beer with no character whatsoever.

14

Leffe Brune-Dubbel

6.5%

Abbey dubbel.
Tobacco, elderflower and cardboard aroma; sweet taste with caramel,
fruit and chicory aromas; bitter finish with hops and fruit.
Has a confusing mixture of hop and burnt caramel flavours. It tastes
more like a caramel-coloured münchner that a dubbel. I doubt
very much that it's truly top-fermented.

28

Leffe Blonde

6.6%

Abbey blond. Every beer in this style is crap. This one goes out
of its way to be positively unpleasant. The worst Belgian beer I've
tried by a long, long way.

Interbrew's main Belgian beer factory, that takes up large parts of Leuven.
I can't say that I like any of the beers brewed there very much. I particularly
dislike Leffe Blonde, a beer that is spreading like a cancer through Europe.
Leffe Tripel - an excellent beer brewed in Hoegaarden - should not be confused
with the rest of the Leffe range.

Lots of beers ended up here when Interbrew closed most of its ale breweries
in a Whitbread-like sweep through the Belgian industry (how ironic they
should themselves have gobbled up Whitbread). I'm not sure how many are
still brewed as there was plenty of the sort of "duplication"
in the range that multinationals love to simplify for us.

A well-distributed regional brewery from Wallonia. Their beers are very
distinctive - there's a certain taste they all seem to have - which helps
when spotting their many label beers. They've never been my favourites,
but that's down to personal taste rather than any failings of the beers
themselves.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that not all the beers listed above
are really separate brews. There are (it seems) hundreds of contract-brewed
versions of these beers.

Brouwerij Bosteels
Kerkstraat 92,
9255 Buggenhout.
Tel: 052 - 332 283

Founded: 1791
Annual production: 23,000 hl

Beer

alc

Description

score (100)

Prosit Pils

4.8%

Pils.

't Zelfde

6.1%

Golden ale.

Tripel Karmeliet

8%

Tripel.
Ginger, cloves, cinnamon and apricot aroma; sweetish taste with lemon,
ginger and clove aromas; bitterish finish with ginger, clove and peach
aromas.
A delicious, subtle beer, brewed from barley , wheat and oats (as
was commonplace in the Low Countries in the Middle Ages). One of my
favourite Belgian beers and one of the best new beers of the last
20 years.
Bottle-conditioned.

Produces a small amount of real geuze, mostly, it seems, for the Mort Subite
café in Brussels. A traditional Lambiek and Kriekenlambiek still
survive on an unofficial basis, though the only place I've ever seen them
is at the Opstal "Weekend der Spontane Gisting" festival. No doubt
some pubs in the Payottenland still serve them, too.

Pale ale. Filtered.
Smoke, perfume and tobacco aroma; bitterish taste with biscuit and
wood aromas; bitter finish with tobacco, wood and herbal aromas.
A pleasant and drinkable beer, that still retains its hop character
(unlike most of its rivals).

46

De Koninck Blond

6%

14º

Blond ale.

Winter Koninck

6.5%

14.7º

Pale ale.

Tripel

8%

18º

Tripel.
Tobacco, wood and smoke aroma; sweet/bitter taste with hop, vanilla,
honey and cherry aromas; very bitter finish with biscuit, hop, herbal
and fruit aromas.
Has a nasty hop-extract smell, but pleasantly bittersweet on the tongue.
Not a bad finish with bags of hops.

60

Cuvee De Koninck

8%

18º

Amber ale. First brewed when Antwerp was European Cultural
Capital. No longer brewed.

The pride of Antwerp and the last brewer to mass-produce a good pale ale
in Belgium. It was for many years a one-product brewery, but has diversified
a little in the last 10 years.

Another Belgian beer that is much easier to find in Holland than its home
country. It's rarely makes an appearance on draught in Belgium outside Antwerp.
It's distributed by Heineken in Holland and there have been rumours that
they had bought a stake in De Koninck. Belgium's secretive company laws
make this difficult to confirm.

Witbier. Ingredients include unmalted wheat, coriander and curacao
peel. Bottle-conditioned.
Very pale, hazy yellow colour with a small head; Orange, basil and
coriander aroma; neutral taste with butter, orange and coriander aromas:
neutral finish with wheat, coriander and lemon aromas.
The original witbier and still good, even if it has lost all its sourness.
(Tasted 19.07.05)

54

Hougaerdse Das

5%

A cross between witbier and a pale ale. An unusual and reasonabley
tasty beer. Bottle-conditioned.

61

Hoegaarden Speciale

5.2%

Seasonal - Oct to Jan. Bottle-conditioned.

Leffe Tripel

8.1%

Abbey tripel. Not to be confused with the other crappy beers with
the Leffe brand. I'm pretty sure it's a slightly modified version
of Hoegaarden Grand Cru. Very pleasant. Bottle-conditioned.

Hoegaarden was founded by Pierre Celis to revive the local wheat beer style,
which had become extinct through brewery closures in the 1960's. Celis had
helped out in local breweries on an irregular basis. One difference in his
beer was that it wasn't spontaneously fermented as the original had been.

The beer gradually gained popularity until a disastrous fire in 1985 put
the brewery's future in doubt. With help from Interbrew, it was rebuilt,
but at a cost. The brewery was eventually bought outright by Interbrew.

Since taking over, Interbrew have fiddled with the beers less than might
have been feared. They''re easily the best of the multinational's Belgian
efforts. If brewed by a small independent brewery, they would probably garner
the praise they deserve. As mass-market beers go, they're up there with
the very best. It doesn't stop the rest of Interbrew's Belgian beers being
total crap, though.

Crappy pils.
Vegetable, raisin, grass and metal aroma; sweetish/bitterish taste
with cardboard, celery and dust aromas; bitter finish with wood, grass
and cardboard aromas.
A quite horrible beer with masses of bad or inappropriate flavours.
On a basic level, it has too much sweetness for the style. Bad, cheap
hop flavours and even some fruitiness can be found.

23

One of Interbrew's two main lager plants in Belgium. Jupiler is seen throughout
Belgium and France. That doesn't make it any good, though.

Pale ale.
Cardboard and dust aroma; sweetish taste with metal aroma; bitterish
finish with cardboard aroma.
Insipid, characterless and quite nasty - it tastes like damp cardboard.
Crap.
A decent beer until it was sweetened for the Dutch market. Now totally
disgusting.

14

Dobbel Palm

5.5%

Version of Palm brewed in the Winter. A bit stronger, but no better.

Palm is widely sold in Interbrew cafés in Holland. The agreement
was originally struck with Oranjeboom and when they were taken over by Interbrew
there was pressure put on landlords to drop Palm. Interbrew later had a
change of heart now seems to have accepted the presence of Palm in its Dutch
pubs.

A recent innovation is an unfiltered version of Speciale Palm dispensed
by handpump. It seems to be cropping up in Palm tied pubs.

Sour red ale.
Mid-brown colour with a thin head; peach, sour and apple aroma; sweetish/sourish
taste with cherry and pear aromas; sourish/bitterish finish with pear,
metallic and grape aromas.
Three parts young to one part old beer. It falls between two stools
- not sour enough for acid fans, just sour enough to put off everyone
else. (Tasted 20.07.2005)

45

Rodenbach Grand Cru

6%

Sour red ale. Made from 100% old beer. A wonderful beer if you like
sourness, undrinkable if you don't. My only complaint is that it isn't
bottle-conditioned.

Owned by Palm. Rodenbach have to be admired for investing
in a whole new bunch of oak maturing vats in the early 1990's. This is where
they leave beer for two years to go sour. They're the only commercial brewer
of the style to still stick to this traditional method 100%.

Sadly, soon after making the investment in exrtra capacity, the market for
sour beers began to slide and the company got into financial difficulty.
The result was a buyout by Palm, who promptly trimmed the product range
by dropping Alexander.

I don't know if this is my memory playing tricks, but I'm sure that the
standard Rodenbach has become less sour over the years. I suspect a change
in the proportions of old and new beer which are blended to produce it.
A couple of outlets offer uncut old beer served by handpump.

Abbey dubbel. Filtered.
Mid-brown colour with a rocky head; cream aroma; sweet taste with
caramel, celery and cardboard aromas, bitterish finish with cardboard
and milk aromas.
Crap. Manages to be even worse than the Blond. Does anyone actually
enjoy this rubbish? (Tasted 19.07.05)

14

Grimbergen Blond

6.7%

Abbey blond. All the beers in this style are crap. Filtered.
Full yellow colour with a fine head; mint and tobacco aromas; sweetish
taste with cardboard and celery aromas; bitterish finish with cardboard
aroma.
Absolutely disgusting. The aroma is OK, but the stale flavours take
over as soon as it hits the mouth. (Tasted 19.07.05)

16

Cuvee L'Hermitage

7.5%

Dark abbey ale.

Grimbergen Tripel

9%

Abbey tripel. Bottle-conditioned.
Full yellow colour with a thick head; sherbert, caramel and coriander
aroma; sweet/bitterish taste with dust , cardboard and honey aromas;
bitter finish with grass, cardboard and caramel aromas.
Almost totally disgusting. The bottle-conditioning gives it a slight
edge on the other Grimbergen beers, but it's still no pleasure to
drink. (Tasted 19.07.05)

27

Grimbergen Optimo Bruno

10%

Barley wine. Not bad - way the best Grimbergen beer.

Ciney Blond

7%

Abbey blond. All the beers in this style are crap. Filtered.
Yellow colour, small head; lemon and coriander aroma; very sweet taste
with dust, sugar and vegetable aromas; bitter finish with vegetable
and resin aromas.
A pretty terrible beer full of strange vegetable and cardboard flavours.
But an improvement on the Grimbergen Blond.(Tasted 20.07.05)

28

Ciney Bruin

7%

Abbey dubbel. Crap.

Ciney Speciale

8.5%

Bottle-conditioned. Dark abbey ale.

Zulte

4.7%

Oud bruin. Pretty poor example of a sour brown beer.

Brugs

4.8%

Witbier.

Watneys Scotch

8%

Scotch ale. Better than the Watneys name suggests, but
not much.

Judas

8.5%

Strong golden ale. Drinkable.

The ale brewery of Alken-Maes (owner Scottish
Courage). It brews beers from several breweries closed by the group.

With the possible exception of Grimbergen Optimo Bruno I wouldn't cross
the street to drink any of their beers. I would jump into the canal to avoid
some of the range. It makes you realise that Interbrew, Belgium's other
big brewer, could be much, much worse.

Abbey tripel. Unfiltered.
Very pale yellow colour with a rocky head; basil, cinnamon, tobacco
and lemon; sweetish/bitterish taste with lemon, honey and basil aromas;
bitterish finish with wood, tobacco and honey aromas.
Has a good spicy aroma, but a little thin in the mouth. Hoppy without
much trace of malt. (Tasted 21.07.2005)

The beer for internal use in the monastery. Only brewed twice a
year. It occasionally escapes to beer festivals. Bottle-conditioned.

Westmalle Dubbel

7%

Dubbel. Bottle-conditioned.
Mid-brown colour with a dense tan head; cream, pepper and biscuit
aroma; sweetish/bitterish taste with cream, plum, chocolate, pepper
and toffee aromas; bitter finish with plum, roasted, chicory and cream
aromas.
A mahogany ale with a touch of sweetness and a good dose of malt bitterness.
Much less sweet than most beers in the style. (Tasted 24.07.2005)

73

Westmalle Tripel

9.5%

Tripel. Bottle-conditioned.
Full yellow colour with a dense head; tobacco, grass, lemon and pepper
aroma; sweetish/bitter taste with pepper, grass, cream, biscuit and
dates aromas; bitter finish with chicory, pepper, raisin and grass
aromas.
A surprisingly hoppy, golden-coloured beer. Has become considerably
paler over the last 10 years, but is still a cracking beer. (Tasted
22.07.2005)

80

One of Belgium's genuine Trappist breweries. It has the highest output but
(unlike Chimay) hasn't dumbed-down its beers in the
slightest.